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Animals
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Second Edition: Research on the Human–Companion Animal Relationship
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Second Edition: Research on the Human–Companion Animal Relationship

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Human-Animal Interactions, Animal Behaviour and Emotion".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 3215

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Udo Ganslosser

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Research, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany
Interests: social behaviour in mammals; zoobiology; human–nonhuman–animal relationships; behavioural aspects of animal welfare and conservation biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Last year, our Special Issue on human–pet relationships was rather successful, and some very inspiring manuscripts were submitted and published.

The success of this first Special Issue on the topic has now encouraged us to plan a second one for 2024.

In principle, what was said in the announcement of last year's issue still holds—scientific relevant concepts (in animal welfare, behavioural and social psychology, neurobiology, etc.) as well as research techniques (behavioural genetics/genomics, endocrinology, neuroimagery, artificial intelligence/deep learning) in the field have been on the rise in recent years.

In addition to looking at "traditional pets", we especially encourage contributions regarding the following:

  • Humanities and social sciences outside the fields of biology and veterinary medicine;
  • Species other than dogs and cats, including non-domesticated species (considering possible conservation issues relating to, e.g., keeping reptiles, amphibians, etc.)
  • Feral populations of domesticated species insofar as they help to better understand the needs and necessities of species under human care (e.g., activity budgets, ranging behaviour, dietary composition, etc.).

Dr. Udo Ganslosser
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • social behaviour in mammals
  • zoobiology
  • human–nonhuman–animal relationship
  • behavioural aspects of animal welfare and conservation biology

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 589 KiB  
Article
Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs (Canis familiaris)
by Lila Muscosky and Alexandra Horowitz
Animals 2024, 14(22), 3316; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14223316 - 18 Nov 2024
Viewed by 263
Abstract
Spatial navigation allows animals to understand their environment position and is crucial to survival. An animal’s primary mode of spatial navigation (horizontal or vertical) is dependent on how they naturally move in space. Observations of the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) have [...] Read more.
Spatial navigation allows animals to understand their environment position and is crucial to survival. An animal’s primary mode of spatial navigation (horizontal or vertical) is dependent on how they naturally move in space. Observations of the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) have shown that they, like other terrestrial animals, navigate poorly in vertical space. This deficit is visible in their use of multi-story buildings. To date, no research has been conducted to determine if dogs can learn how to navigate in an anthropogenic vertical environment with the help of a landmark. As such, we herein investigate the effect of the addition of a visual or olfactory landmark on dogs’ ability to identify when they are on their home floor. Subject behaviors toward their home door and a contrasting floor door were compared before and after exposure to a landmark outside of their home door. While subjects initially showed no difference in latency to approach an apartment door on their home or a wrong floor, we found a significant difference in latency to approach the doors in the test trials for subjects who approached the doors in every trial. Other findings are equivocal, but this result is consistent with the hypothesis that dogs can learn to navigate in vertical space. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition: Research on the Human–Companion Animal Relationship)
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14 pages, 486 KiB  
Article
How Attachment to Dogs and to Other Humans Relate to Mental Health
by Katherine Northrope, Matthew B. Ruby and Tiffani J. Howell
Animals 2024, 14(19), 2773; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14192773 - 26 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1456
Abstract
It is unclear how pet ownership is related to mental health, with some previous research suggesting pet owners have better mental health, while other research suggests they have worse mental health. Some researchers have suggested that it may be more useful to investigate [...] Read more.
It is unclear how pet ownership is related to mental health, with some previous research suggesting pet owners have better mental health, while other research suggests they have worse mental health. Some researchers have suggested that it may be more useful to investigate the bond people feel with their pets and how this may impact mental health; however, this too has led to mixed results. This study examined how owners’ attachment to their dogs was associated with mental health and how this compared to their attachment relationships with other humans in a sample of 607 dog owners. Our findings indicate that both strong and insecure attachments to dogs are linked to poorer mental health outcomes, as was having an insecure attachment style in their human relationships. The adverse impact of strong attachment to dogs on mental health was mediated by these owners having an anxious attachment style toward other people, which in turn was associated with poorer mental health. The relationship between a strong attachment to dogs and poorer mental health was also moderated by gender, with this relationship being significant in women but not significant for men. Together, these results suggest a possible risk to mental health for owners who form a strong attachment to their dogs to compensate for anxious attachments in human relationships. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition: Research on the Human–Companion Animal Relationship)
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15 pages, 215 KiB  
Article
Embodied Communication, Sensed Atmospheres, Joint Situations: Human–Horse Encounters from a Neophenomenological Perspective
by Robert Pütz
Animals 2024, 14(12), 1720; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14121720 - 7 Jun 2024
Viewed by 952
Abstract
This article shows that the German philosopher Hermann Schmitz’s new phenomenology can make a valuable contribution to human–animal studies. The three concepts suitable for this purpose are, first, Schmitz’s concept of embodied communication, which can be applied to trans-species encounters; second, his understanding [...] Read more.
This article shows that the German philosopher Hermann Schmitz’s new phenomenology can make a valuable contribution to human–animal studies. The three concepts suitable for this purpose are, first, Schmitz’s concept of embodied communication, which can be applied to trans-species encounters; second, his understanding of atmospheres, which are always co-communicated in trans-species encounters; and, third, his conception of situation, which can help with analyzing the relationship of society to animals. My contribution applies these three basic elements of new phenomenology—embodied communication, atmosphere, and situation—to the analysis of the encounters between humans and horses. This paper demonstrates that embodied communication in particular is not only a worthwhile object of research but can also serve as a mode of producing scientific insight. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition: Research on the Human–Companion Animal Relationship)
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